Chapter 108: Stirring Up Big News
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“Two Actresses Join Him for a Night Out—the Mainland’s Rising Director Xiang Wu Is Certainly Blessed!”
“Hailu Qin or Ziyi Zhang—which one is his true love?!”
“Ziyi Zhang and Xiang Wu—the golden couple of mainland cinema!”
One sensational headline after another appeared across the entertainment pages. It began in Hong Kong’s gossip tabloids, then spread with astonishing speed until virtually every Chinese-language media outlet knew about it.
There were photographs, though only of them entering the hotel. Cameras were presumably forbidden inside, but that was more than enough for the reporters to let their imaginations run wild.
“According to eyewitnesses, the day after the Golden Horse Awards, Xiang Wu went with actresses Hailu Qin and Ziyi Zhang to Lung King Heen at the Four Seasons Hotel to enjoy a lavish meal. During dinner, Xiang Wu and Ziyi Zhang were seen engaged in an extended private conversation. They then left the restaurant…”
And that was where the account ended. What happened afterward was left unstated in some articles, while others described events of the wildest sort. Whatever you wanted to imagine, they claimed had happened. They had absolutely no sense of decency.
“They made it all up! Every word is nonsense! Haiqing, you mustn’t believe any of it!”
The moment the story broke, Xiang Wu went straight to Haiqing and hurried to explain himself.
How could Haiqing not know? The newspapers were filled with the story—everywhere he looked, it was the headline.
Come to think of it, Xiang Wu had been far luckier than that fellow Feng Wang. He had hardly done anything and had already made the front page. Really, where was the justice in that? Fortunately, the old scholar Feng still knew nothing about it…
“Then let me ask you something. Why didn’t you tell me about it the moment you came back?” Haiqing’s face showed no expression at all as she asked the question. Xiang Wu could not read her in the slightest.
It was an excellent question, and it struck precisely where he was most uncomfortable. That was right—if he had nothing to hide, why had he not told her at once?
“She really is a clever woman,” Xiang Wu thought.
His immediate problem was to answer her. At last he said, “For one thing, I was busy. You know how much I have on my plate right now. And for another… I was afraid you might misunderstand. Honestly, I thought it was better not to stir up trouble. Why would I go looking for problems?”
It was the absolute truth. Unfortunately, it was also the excuse countless men had used before him, one so worn out that everyone had heard it a thousand times. Xiang Wu wished he had something more original to offer, but at the moment he had no other choice. Still, he had a backup plan—though for it to work, he would have to…
“Did you like her back then?” Haiqing asked another question. She remained just as expressionless, unnervingly calm.
“…”
Xiang Wu fell silent. He had not expected Haiqing to continue pressing him in the way he had imagined. Instead, she had asked this.
“I’m asking about back then.” Haiqing simply stared at him.
“I understand. I—I didn’t—I mean, it wasn’t—”
Xiang Wu desperately wanted to say that he had never liked Ziyi Zhang at all. But that would clearly have been a lie. For some reason, faced with Haiqing’s extraordinary calm, he could not force out a falsehood—not even a well-intentioned one.
“You don’t have to say it.” There was already a glimmer of tears in Haiqing’s eyes. “Then let me ask you this: What about now? Do you still like her?”
At that moment, Xiang Wu found strength from somewhere deep within and answered with complete seriousness, “Now, I only regard her as a friend.”
“All right. Then I believe you.” Haiqing said it very calmly, and somehow she managed to hold back the tears threatening to spill over.
“You believe me just like that?” Xiang Wu found it unbelievable. This could not be right. In the usual version of this scene, would he not have to swear a dozen solemn oaths before the matter was settled? Romantic films and sentimental love stories always did things that way.
“Yes. I believe you.” Haiqing reaffirmed it.
“Do you want me to swear an oath?”
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“No!”
“I—I should still swear one.”
“No!”
“Why not?” Xiang Wu was genuinely bewildered.
A faint smile appeared on Haiqing’s face. Yet precisely because her expression had changed, one of the tears she had been holding back finally slipped down her cheek.
“Because even if what you said were a lie, I would still choose to believe you. I know I can’t compare with her, but I can choose to love you.”
When those words reached Xiang Wu’s heart, he could hold back no longer. He pulled Haiqing into his arms, and his heart ached terribly.
“I’m sorry. I understand now. Haiqing, please believe me. Maybe I did like her once, but I never will again. I’ll love only you. I love only you!”
“Waaah…”
Xiang Wu held her tightly, but that was not what made Haiqing cry.
“I feel as if I’ve changed. I feel as if I’ve become stupid. Why did I fall in love with a great bamboo pole like you? You’re obviously no good!”
In truth, Xiang Wu had understood the meaning of that single tear the instant it fell. Haiqing was not crying over their love, nor was she feeling wronged by what had happened. She was crying over the changes within herself. In this relationship, she had become someone unlike her former self. She had once been like a green lotus—proud, pure, and untouched.
“I’m no good. I’m no good,” Xiang Wu repeated.
The matter itself had already passed, but she was crying, and he had to comfort her.
“Hmph!”
Sure enough, Haiqing pouted and pounded him twice with her little fists. “I was so afraid you would run off with her!”
Xiang Wu could only accept his punishment. But he had prepared a backup plan. “Haiqing, I actually have proof. I really have nothing going on with her.”
“Proof? What proof?”
Though Haiqing’s eyes were still blurred with tears, the storm had passed. She was genuinely curious about this evidence.
“Take a look.”
Xiang Wu reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a small box, along with a sheet of paper.
“What is this?”
Haiqing was intensely curious and immediately took it from him for a closer look.
The box was covered in English lettering. Among the words printed on it were the letters D-U-R-E-X.
There was no need to ask. It was the little umbrella Xiang Wu had prepared earlier.
“Oh, my God! What are you doing?!”
Haiqing was not illiterate. She understood at once, and the sight was far too embarrassing for words.
Her face flushed instantly, and she threw the box away.
“Don’t throw it! That’s the evidence. Look at the paper!”
Xiang Wu hurriedly picked up his “evidence.”
“…”
The paper was a machine-printed receipt. The date on it was the day Haiqing and Xiang Wu had gone to Hong Kong—in other words, he had bought the thing for her.
“Go to hell, you lecher!” She hammered him several more times.
That great bamboo pole was simply too wicked!
Xiang Wu was not merely being foolish. He had prepared the item in advance, intending to bring it out only if Haiqing stopped believing him completely at the last moment. But now that she had spoken so openly, he felt obliged to explain everything clearly. He absolutely could not leave the slightest resentment between them.
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“Look. It hasn’t been opened. It’s perfectly intact—the packaging and everything are still sealed. If I had done what those articles claimed, would this thing still be unused?”
Xiang Wu’s evidence was utterly shameless.
Throughout the entire history of love, past and present, East and West, there had probably never been another foolish man who tried to prove his innocence with such an object. This was unquestionably Xiang Wu’s original creation. There was not the slightest hint of imitation.
“Ha, ha, ha…”
Haiqing laughed and cried at the same time. She had never seen anything so absurd. But she was not about to let the shameless man off so easily.
“Why did you keep the receipt?”
“I was afraid customs would make me declare it and pay taxes.”
That, at least, was the truth.
“Then how do you prove that you bought it in Hong Kong? You couldn’t have bought another one in the capital to fool me.”
“The traditional characters! Where would you find those on one sold in the capital?”
“You might have bought another box, though.”
“There was no need. You’re judging my motives at the time by the result we see now. Think about it—how could I have known this affair would be exposed? No one would be that cautious. If I already had one on hand, why would I go to the trouble of buying another?”
Xiang Wu’s logic was impeccable. But Haiqing was determined to find some flaw in it.
“Maybe you didn’t use one when you were together!”
The moment the words left her mouth, Haiqing realized how improper they sounded. Her face turned scarlet.
“I might have agreed, but she wouldn’t have.”
Xiang Wu answered with brutal honesty.
With that, his last shred of decency shattered.
“You filthy lecher! Go to hell! Ha, ha, ha…”
Even Haiqing’s laughter had become strangely breathless.
“Believe me. If you don’t, ask Hailu Qin. She’ll be returning to the capital sooner or later. That night, the two of them took a taxi and left me behind.”
Xiang Wu was truly innocent.
“All right. Let’s drop it. I believe you.”
Haiqing did not want to dwell on the matter any longer. It was better to let it pass.
Xiang Wu knew the crisis was over, but he still felt he ought to give Haiqing some confidence.
“Haiqing, you’re really no worse than her. Believe me.”
“Don’t comfort me.” Haiqing knew herself well enough. “She’s better than I am in every way—fame, looks, figure. I’ve heard she trained in dance too. There are simply too many things.”
But Xiang Wu leaned close to her ear and whispered, “I’m not comforting you. Believe me, there is one area where you’re better than her. I’ve examined the matter carefully. Hers are small, while yours are rather substantial.”
Small?!
“Xiang Wu! You shameless lecher! I’ll kill you!”
“Am I not allowed to tell the truth?” Xiang Wu was only trying to build her confidence.
“Go to hell!”
Haiqing wore a radiant smile, though what she was doing with her hands was another matter entirely.
Perhaps Ziyi Zhang was the dream—or even the fantasy—of every man. She had almost no flaws at all. Haiqing, by contrast, represented ordinary life. In the end, Xiang Wu chose life and abandoned fantasy.
It was not supposed to be a tragic story, but he had sacrificed every last shred of his decency.
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